Is Australian booking giant Wotif about to disappoint investors?

- Oct 26, 2012 12:47 am

Skift Take

Wot if made a move this week to raise commissions for towels by one percent in 2013 and another one in 2014. Whether this will turn into increased revenue or create opportunities for rivals remains to be seen.

— Jason Clampet

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In the wake of phenomenal share price increases, retailers such as Wotif and Webjet, and the online classifieds providers such as Seek, Carsales.com and realestate.com.au owner REA have grown enormously with most having market caps in the billions. They are also very expensive. Their average PE is about 20 times — a fair whack above the industrial average of 13 times.

The share prices of the online companies are “priced to perfection”, and could easily face a massive drop if there is an earnings hiccup and they don’t keep producing 20 per cent-plus annual growth. They would face a double whammy of lower expected earnings and a PE de-rating to something in the order of 15 times, or lower.